Capablanca's Rule

by Karsten Müller
2/25/2025 – In endings with bishops of the same colour it is often good for the attacking side to put their pawns on squares of the opposite colour. This gives the king room to maneuver and the enemy pawns can be attacked. As Black demonstrated in the diagram position - what would you do?

Endgames of the World Champions from Fischer to Carlsen Endgames of the World Champions from Fischer to Carlsen

Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.

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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bb5 Nd4 5.0-0 a6 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Nd5 g6 8.c3 Bg7 9.Re1 d6 10.Ne3 Nge7 11.Bb1 d5 12.d4 cxd4 13.cxd4 dxe4 14.Bxe4 0-0 15.Nc4 Nxd4 16.Be3 e5 17.Nfxe5 Nef5 18.Bd2 Rb8 19.Bc3 Be6 20.Bxf5 Nxf5 21.Qxd8 Rfxd8 22.Nb6 Nd4 23.Nbd7 Bxd7 24.Bxd4 Be6 25.Bc3 Rbc8 26.a3 Rc5 27.f4 Rcd5 28.h3 Bh6 29.Re4 Bf5 30.Rb4 b5 31.Ng4 Bxg4 32.hxg4 Re8 33.Re1 Rxe1+ 34.Bxe1 f5 35.gxf5 gxf5 36.Kf1 Bg7 37.Ke2 Kf7 38.Bc3 a5 39.Rb3 a4 40.Rb4 Bf8 41.Rd4 Ke6 42.Kd3 Bd6 43.Rxd5 Kxd5 44.Bd2 h5 45.Be3 b4 46.axb4 Bxb4 47.Bd4 Bd6 48.Be3 Bc5 49.Bd2 Bd4 50.Bc3 Bc5 51.Be5 Bb4 52.Bc7 Bf8 53.Be5 Bh6 54.Ke3 Kc4 55.Kf3 Capablanca's Rule In endings with bishops of the same colour it is often good for the attacking side to put their pawns on squares of the opposite colour. This gives the king room to maneuver and the enemy pawns can be attacked. As Black demonstrated in the diagram position - what would you do?
Black to move and win
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Christiansen,J2664Sindarov,J26920–12025B30German Bundesliga 2024/256

Karsten Mueller in ChessBase Magazine

Do you like these lessons? There are plenty more by internationally renowned endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine, where you will also find openings articles and surveys, tactics, and of course annotations by the world's top grandmasters.

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Apart from his regular columns and video lectures in ChessBase Magazine there is a whole series of training DVDs by Karsten Mueller, which are bestsellers in the ChessBase Shop.

Karsten Mueller

Karsten Mueller regularly presents endgame lessons in the ChessBase Video Portal

Links

<< Svitlana's Smart Moves - How to analyse a game you lost
"The Best Is Yet to Come": Magnus Carlsen talks with Andrea and Alexandra Botez about love, life, chess and more >>
Topics: ChessBase Magazine, Endgame, Karsten Mueller
Karsten Müller is considered to be one of the greatest endgame experts in the world. His books on the endgame - among them "Fundamentals of Chess Endings", co-authored with Frank Lamprecht, that helped to improve Magnus Carlsen's endgame knowledge - and his endgame columns for the ChessCafe website and the ChessBase Magazine helped to establish and to confirm this reputation. Karsten's Fritztrainer DVDs on the endgame are bestsellers. The mathematician with a PhD lives in Hamburg, and for more than 25 years he has been scoring points for the Hamburger Schachklub (HSK) in the Bundesliga.
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See also

Outposts

2/18/2025 – Knights often need outposts to defend against bishops. In the diagram position Black's knight has no safe outpost and this allows White to win. How?
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See also

The umbrella

2/11/2025 – Rook checks are an important defensive technique in rook endings, and it is good to know ways to defend against this rain of checks: one way is to hide behind the enemy pawns using these pawns as an "umbrella". Can White use this technique to win the diagram position?
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 3

Video

60m How to fight Queen's Pawn Openigns

After 1.d4 d5 many players with White avoid the great amount of theory in the Slav, Semi-Slav, QGA and Orthodox Queen's Gambit and do not therefore play 2.c4. This is not very ambitious, but the painful experience of many chess players has been that the Colle System, the Trompowsky Attack, the Torre Attack and the London System are nevertheless extremely dangerous. Black has to be prepared for each of these openings and IM Valeri Lilov offers you some help with his six instructive videos, in which he demonstrates for each single opening a relevant plan for Black. In addition to the openings mentioned, the Bulgarian trainer also delves into the Catalan, the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit and the Richter-Veresov Opening.

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Karsten Müller Karsten Müller 2/26/2025 09:07
arzi: Yes that is correct. Activity is more important than material here!
arzi arzi 2/25/2025 11:14
The real mistake was in move 38. Bc3. The game could still have been saved by move 38. a4.
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